The real cost of physical inactivity

Dr Suzanne Pearson

September 19, 2016

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The hype of the Olympic and Paralympic Games brings out the aspiring athlete in all of us. But with physical activity, there’s no need to be an Olympian.

Turns out when it comes to making a move, we’re not giving ourselves a sporting chance. In fact, a recent study estimated the global economic burden of physical inactivity was US$67.5 billion in 2013; of which Australia picked up an $805 million tab. Yikes. C’mon Aussies.

The study published in The Lancet is the first ever to provide a global estimate of the costs associated with an increasingly sedentary world. Researchers included data from 142 countries, representing 93.2 percent of the global population. The costs included healthcare expenditure, lost productivity and disability‑adjusted life years (DALYs) for the big five lifestyle diseases associated with physical inactivity: heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer.